• Temporary Splash Page

• Full Website

• Facebook Landing Page

• Facebook Timeline

• Twitter Branding

• Youtube Branding

• Newsletter Design

We are proud of the work we did for this client, and would like to thank than for being such great clients to work with.  We would like to wish Ken Cornell the best of luck in his campaign.

Visit Ken Cornell’s site here:

The answer to that, is a resounding YES!  Regardless of how big or small your company is, a website is a necessity for virtually ANY business.  One great thing about the internet is that it levels the playing field between the small business owners and the ‘big boys’.  Both a company with 3 employees, and a company with thousands of employees can get their presence noticed on the web.  Whether you do business online, or use a web page for simply an online presence, a web page is a necessity for a business in 2012.  If you dont have a website, you are immediately losing business to a company that does.

That said. a business website needs to look professional.  Even if there isnt much content, a website should be attractive, simple to navigate, and get viewers to know exactly what the company is about as quickly as possible.  In fact, it may be better to have no website at all than a poorly built website that makes your company look bad.  With all the connectivity in 2012, people can open their phone, see a map and notice your business out of several listed.  If they see a poorly designed broken website, that may be an immediate detractor for your business.  If your users see that you take your website seriously, that same impression will carry over to the way they feel about your business.  Inversely, if your website is sloppily put together, that could also translate to the way some viewers view your business.

In today’s culture, consumers often look to the web to research services, products, and businesses before ever stepping foot into an actual store.

A website is an important part of any business and its crucial that its treated that way.

Whether you are a small self-starter, a mid-size or a multi-million dollar corporation, keeping your business in the forefront of people’s mind is essential. Creative and professional business cards are an easy way to spread the word about your business and the products you have to offer. It does not matter if you are just starting your business or trying to retain the customer base you have built over the past 20 years, your primary goal is to be remembered the next time your customer is in need of assistance.

Classic business cards have served this purpose for years, but with an ever-changing marketplace business professionals need to make themselves stand apart from the crowd. A local hair salon could use plain white business cards with a boring black text, or they could be designed to reflect the look and feel of the business. Bicycle repair shops could design business cards that double as wrench that their customers will not only save, but continually use, reminding them of your superior service.

Over the past year or two, there has been discussion about traditional business cards and how increasing innovation and technology has challenged their usefulness. There are many tools from desktop scanning equipment, to smart phone apps that are competing to take the print card to an online format. Although there are various platforms that accomplish this, we believe the business card will remain a standard in the business world. There are technologies that you can use now, that bridge the gap between the traditional business card, and the technology that is trying to erase them.

• Update your business cards to include information about where you are online, socially and professionally.
• Add a QR code to your business cards, either on the front or back. The QR code could link to your company’s website, to your LinkedIn profile, or you can have it contain your contact information.

We believe that there should be a happy medium between these online platforms and creatively designed business cards. By taking advantage of the technologies, you will reach your technology savvy customers, without disenfranchising your more traditional customers, plus you will have an impressive business cards that your customers will remember next time they need your help.

Facebook is bringing a significant change to the way businesses are displayed on Facebook by introducing Timeline for pages.  The most obvious change is the layout.  The cover photo will allow businesses to express their brand in a creative manner.  The goal of the change is to give brands their identity, and to emotionally connect with users.  Instead of brands pushing their product to users, Facebook is trying to connect brands and users with tools that will allow more of a connect and open communications with each other.   Rather than the cookie cutter feed-like display you would normally get in a brands page, the cover photo, and the featured posts are among the elements that ve your brand its identity on Facebook.  You can use Timeline to tell the story of your business.  You can note ‘milestones’ on your page.  Examples of milestones would be; the creation of your business, an evolution of your business, product announcements, major announcements, etc.  All will be displayed in wide attractive images.

One interesting addition Timeline is bringing to pages is ‘pinned content’.  Basically how this will work is it will pin a post to the top of your timeline that will act as your ‘post of the week’.  It will remain above the fold over other newer posts until it is unpinned.  This will allow for major postings (whether they be announcements, offers, etc) to remain the featured post.  Brands can direct users to their landing pages and apps within their pinned posts as well.

Facebook is referring to Timeline for pages as a brands ‘Mission Control’.  Administrators of pages will now have the ability to approve posts for users, and it now allows for direct messaging between Facebook users and brands.  At the top of your page, when logged in as an admin, an administrative panel will drop down listing stats, messages, recent likes, click-thru’s, etc.  Administrator permission levels are also being rolled out, giving users the appropriate level of administrative access to the admin panel of a page.

Timeline for pages is available now.  It will be a mandatory change for all brand pages on March 30th.

Liquid Creative converted to the new Timeline this morning.  We would love to share it with you, and encourage you to Like our page for future updates and to see how we utilize the new Timeline layout.

http://www.facebook.com/LiquidCreative

With the professional world joining the cloud, and connectivity seemingly erasing the difference between a 10 foot and 1,000 mile separation, working remotely is starting to become part of the norm in the bushiness world.  I began working remotely full time last fall.  Working remotely brings with it certain challenges, and many advantages.  I am going to try to share some of my experiences and tools that I utilize in this post.  I would be glad to hear from experiences others have had with working remotely.  Please sound off in the comments below.

Environment

I am now a firm believer that this is the biggest advantage of working remotely.  Initially, this was my biggest concern.  I am a big fan of gadgets (I have many).  I also have a two year old with what seems to be more toys than he could ever need.  I was worried about these distractions in my workday.  However, I soon realized that having complete control over my work environment has enabled me to be far more productive than I have ever been in a traditional office environment.  I designated a room in my house as  my home office.  I isolate it from my 2 year old’s toys, my home entertainment, anything that I would be distracted by.  I can play any music I want, and really get into a groove with work.  I will often put on some nice background music or talk radio.  Before I know it, 4 hours have passed and I have accomplished more work than I initially thought I could.

No matter how productive your environment is, it can be necessary (or at least beneficial) to change the scenery every once in a while.  Come midweek, I usually make an effort to spend half a day working out of a local coffee shop.  Perhaps its just the ‘over-caffieneation’, but the change in scenery seems to really give me a second wind, and I find those days to be very productive.  Granted, it took me a while to sort out the coffee shops in the area to find the one that was the best work environment for me.

Bottom line, your workplace is what you make of it when working remotely.  The examples listed above are just my own personal preference.  I am very routine oriented with my work week, and I needed to find a routine that suits my personal workplace.  Everyone has their own optimal work conditions, making a personal tailored work environment an incredibly important tool for a remote professional.

Tools

Perhaps I have dwelled a little long on the working environment, but I have come to find that it’s the most important tool for a remote workplace.  Below are some essential software applications that I use on an almost daily basis:

• Google Apps
  
  I am lumping the Google Apps together because each are just as necessary, and they are meant to work with eachother.  The main Google Apps I am referencing are Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs.  I use all 3… all day… every day!  I use 3 email accounts, including 1 Gmail one, and 2 separate business emails.  I have them all routing through my Gmail account.  The reason I do this is how well everything interacts and syncs with the other Google Apps.  My work flow is synced through Google Calendar and is maintained and shared with coworkers, allowing us each to see and edit the work flow of our design work.  The same can be said about documents relating to our client and professional notes in Google Docs.  Gmail also provides a messenger allowing for easy quick communication for quick messaging.  All of this is also synced to my iPhone as well, making me constantly on top of my schedule, email, and documents, no matter where I go, or where I am working from.

• Dropbox
  
  Since we are in the design business, we are  constantly dealing with large files, and lots of them.  While Google Docs is an invaluable tool for shared documents, Dropbox has become a staple in my daily work flow for all my other file management.  Dropbox syncs designated files with an online account, and on whatever computer the client is installed on.  I use a PC in my home office, and my laptop when I am on the move.  No matter what, all my files are up to date on both machines thanks to Dropbox.  We gather files from clients, and share them in designated folders in dropbox with editing rights for myself and several coworkers.  While you can upgrade dropbox size with subscription fees, you can also take advantage of free options, including surveys, betas, invites, edu incentives, etc.  I have a free dropbox account, and currently have boosted my space to 13.9GB.  Inviting friends and getting them signed up gives you added space, and if you register with an edu email address, that space is doubled.  There was also a recent incentive to beta test a photo upload feature that give up to 4.5 free GB of space.

• Skype 

  Communication is another major obstacle with working remotely.  Luckily for me, we have someone who is great at coordinating work flow between our designers and our clients, and making sure everything is covered.  While email is the go to communication, occasionally we need to coordinate with each other (or a client), and brainstorm or develop a plan of attack for a project.  Skype has proven to be a great tool for this.  We will often video chat and share screens to demo ideas and websites.  Communication is essential, and the addition of screen sharing can allow us all to see the same thing and discuss in real time.

  * All of the above apps are available free of charge

Obviously these are just a small sampling of the tools available, however I find these to be the most essential, and the ones that I use on an almost daily basis.  The most important thing I have learned is to set yourself up with the most productive environment for your personal needs, and make sure your communication and work flow is organized in the most logical manner.  You don’t want to spend all your time organizing and emailing, when there are FREE tools at your disposal that can assist you with all of this.

It’s 2012 and hundreds of millions of people are connected through social media and interact daily.  The number of Facebook users may hit 1 billion in the next year or two.  Twitter has increased by 60% over the past year.  We know there are a ton of people on these services, but how are all these people interacting with brands on social media?

What is the most effective approach for businesses to take with their social media accounts?

Obviously the major difference between social media branding and traditional marketing is that users have the choice to follow a brand.  There needs to be incentive, be following for more information, deals, or brand loyalty.  However there is also a seemingly fine line companies need to walk to give followers the information they want, without being intrusive.  It’s a delicate dance between brands and followers.

AYTM Market Research recently conducted a survey of 2,000 random internet users regarding these very questions.  Below is an info-graphic laying out their findings:

This year was another fun evening of hearing the family laugh, seeing my 88 year old grandmother’s jaw-drop and witnessing my dad’s smile when he related to one of his favorites, Clint Eastwood and the message about hardworking Americans.  Analyzing their reactions and comments left me wondering, which ads resonate and did they reach their target markets?  I know my brothers and the 5 other men in the room wanted to buy flowers, computer hosting services and possibly a KIA by the end of the game.  I know every woman in the room, including my grandmother were talking about Beckham well after the spot ended and then were “shushed” because the game had come back on.

My personal Thumbs Up go to:

1. Ferris Bueller and Honda CR-V –

I loved the nostalgia!  It was brilliant for those who have seen the movie and could relate, remembering their high school days.  It also worked for those who may have not seen the movie, it says life is short, it’s important to enjoy it, and the car to do it in is a CR-V.  Smart ad!

2. VolksWagen The Dog Strikes Back -

Well done, as usual for VW!  Perfect choice of music. Yes, you get a cute animal (a Super Bowl staple) but it’s a good build-up to a beauty shot of the new Beetle too. In the second half of the spot, the “Star Wars” bar scene, I felt, could have been done without. I am not sure anybody but advertising people even remember the Darth Vader kid from last year.  I did just hear today that VW’s teaser ad leading up to the game (the dog chorus barking the “Star Wars” theme song) went viral and accrued $9.6M of Twitter Impact Media Value. Wow!  That’s powerful!

3. Sketchers Dog Race –

Hilarious and a great, humorous ad.  What we all expect in a good Super Bowl spot!  Ironically Bradshaw’s touchdown in the final minutes paralleled the sketcher dog’s moon walk backwards across the finish line!  Although not on purpose, still a funny observation.

4. Clint Eastwood, It’s Halftime America –

Wow, it was moving, real and captivating.  It made me and the entire room silent with focus.  I wonder though, will it drive Americans to take notice — and ultimately buy a Chrysler?

5. CHEVY The Apocalypse Proof, Silverado –

This ad started off a bit strange for me. I was skeptical, thinking there would be aliens or something supernatural and it was turning me off, wondering how they would relate it to a truck.  Then it came together in the end, brilliantly, even down to the Twinkies, which obviously can withstand anything, like a CHEVY truck.

6. Audi Vampire Party -

One of my faves of the night. Audi’s LED headlights fry all the partying vampires…sorry Twilight fans…..“Daylight now in a headlight.”  Fun to watch and built entirely on a real point of difference.  Pretty unique and a bold move.  I loved how the ad seemed to target a younger audience than the seemingly normal demographic.

According to Mullen, an ad firm in Boston that was tracking the Twitter traffic on Super Bowl ads in real-time:

1.  Doritos (Tweets 48,498) (Sentiment 29%)
2.  H&M (Tweets 43,536) (Sentiment 14%)
3.  Chrysler (Tweets 33,943) (Sentiment 10%)
4.  Pepsi (Tweets 39,242) (Sentiment 8%)
5.  Chevrolet (Tweets 36,934) (Sentiment 17%)
6.  M&M’s (Tweets 18,316) (Sentiment 41%)
7.  Budweiser (Tweets 18,916) (Sentiment 12%)
8.  VW (Tweets 17,131) (Sentiment 26%)
9.  Coke (Tweets 18,463) (Sentiment 4%)
10. Bud Light (Tweets 15,298) (Sentiment 18%)

Small businesses can be one of the largest benefactors of social media.  Social media is free to setup, and instantly gives businesses the ability to provide real time news and updates through their social media followers.  We will elaborate on how to utilize social media more in future posts, I am going to focus briefly on how social media can be utilized on your website.  When a small business has their site up and running, one goal for the business should be to attract visitors to their social media pages.  If you can get someone to ‘Like’ your page, you instantly have direct real-time communication with that person (and often the people in their network).  We want to encourage visitors to connect with your business on social media.  Having a facebook feed in your website is an option, or simply putting facebook share icons, or ‘like’ buttons in your website’s posts can get your content on social media without people needing to ‘like’ your business.  Any way to get people to share your website content, or mention of your business on social media is beneficial.  Think of social media as a pond or a spider web.  Getting your content shared on facebook can cause a ripple effect  carrying your content to each visitors unique social spider web.  It’s only one click from the visitor.  Getting interesting content on your site, and making the social media sharing options visible (and not intrusive) should be a goal.

Regularly posting to and updating a website is sometimes hard to do, especially for small business’s that are pressed for time as is.  This can be another area where social media can help.  Lets face it, if you are an internet user, chances are you check Facebook at least once a day.  We know how easy it is to post to social media.  While website content can be shared on social media, it can also work the other way around.  If you have a site that you can’t update as often as you’d like, why not utilize social media to dynamically change content on your site.  Twitter, while popular, is much less so than Facebook.  However I find twitter a great way to dynamically change content on your website, or to post news to your homepage, etc.  A simple twitter feed that displays your most recent tweet, or a set # of most recent tweets can be a very easy and effective way to announce news, events, etc on your home page.  With just a simple tweet, you can notify users of anything you want (in 140 characters or less).

Social media is consuming the internet, and has become an essential part of an online presence.  When building a new website for your business, social media should be part of your plans.  Integrating social media into your website is both easy and effective.  To see one way you can implement social media into a post, check the area just below this post.

Our Blog- This blog is a place where you will be able to learn about design trends, website building ideas, general business marketing help, as well as social media updates (which we know happen everyday!) You will also see what we are up to, design projects, fun client initiatives, as well as intern contribution!

Have a Question or Topic you would like us to address? Drop us a line!

Flow with it!

The Liquid Creative Studio Team

April, Morgan, Nate, and Angela

It is Marketing Mud Cares’ mission to serve all those in need of creative services.  To be considered for this grant, please provide the following information and materials to be reviewed by the committee. 

Application Deadline is January 6th, 2012.

Mail or drop off examples of requested materials to: 8763 SW 27th Lane Gainesville, FL 32608

Examples include: Brochures, Folders, Packets, Logo, Flyers, Direct Mail, etc.

Grant Recipient will be announced January 20, 2012.